The guards stationed at her door halted me, examined the Prince’s sign manual which I carried, and became extremely uncomfortable.
“Komad, we mean no affront to our lord the Prince, but the Lady Darloona has given us express instruction that she be not disturbed this evening. Since the Warlord, Arkola, has commanded us to obey the Princess in all things, save permitting her to elude surveillance, we thus cannot allow you to pass.”
“But it is a message from her betrothed!” I protested. “And surely the Princess cannot have retired to her couch so early in the evening as this. Can you not―”
The officer shook his head with reluctant firmness.
“We are not permitted to transgress against her wishes in such matters,” he said. “It is the command of the Lord Arkola that she be given the illusion of freedom and that her privacy be not intruded upon, save in matters of the most dire necessity. We must, therefore, refuse to let you pass.”
My face reddened. “But I am expressly commanded by Prince Vaspian to deliver this gift―
“And I am expressly commanded by the Lord of the Black Legion to obey the wishes of the Princess,” he said curtly. Then, misunderstanding my distress as a rather natural fear of returning to my patron with his commands unfulfilled, he softened: “You can, of course, leave the gift with me and I shall see that it is delivered into the hands of the Princess personally. Or you may simply return tomorrow morning and deliver it yourself.”
I was seized by a fury of impatience and frustration, but I could not afford to argue. For how could I explain that if I waited till tomorrow, the Prince’s confidential valet, Golar, would be back on duty and since a task of this nature was usually assigned to him, I would thus lose my one opportunity to seek a private interview with Darloona without risk of arousing the suspicions of the Chac Yuul?
As there was no recourse, I nodded and turned away, but the turmoil in my breast was such that I did not go far. It was perfectly infuriating to be this close to my goal and unable to progress a single step further.
On sudden impulse I turned aside into certain seldom-used side passages and followed them, searching for the unobtrusive sign which I knew denoted a sliding panel which would give me entrance into the system of secret passages within the palace walls.
Ere I had gone far I found that for which I sought. A swift glance revealed I was alone and unobserved. My fingers found and depressed a spring concealed in the carven detail of the wall. A panel slid ajar and I stepped into the darkness.
Without difficulty, so familiar bad I become with the system of secret passages by this time, I made my way to the apartments of the Princess. My hand was upon the spring that would open a panel and give me entrance into her boudoir, but a sudden flash of caution bade me survey the room before entering it so abruptly. I found the nearest spyhole, slid aside its cover, and set my eye thereto, peering into the room.
To my astonishment, once more I found myself gazing upon my beloved in the arms of another. A tall man, cloaked and hooded in dark green―surely, it was the same man whom once before I had discovered thus engaged in a tender embrace with the Princess Darloona―a man whom I felt certain was none other than my patron, Prince Vaspian, himself.
But this was most peculiar indeed! Why on earth―or on Thanator, for that matter―would Vaspian have gone out of his way to send me to the Princess with his gift when be was en route to her quarters himself and could easily have delivered the jewelry in person? It simply did not make sense!
Alas, while I stood paralyzed with astonishment at this most puzzling and unexpected development, the hooded man turned swiftly from the embrace of Darloona, bade her farewell, thumbed the spring, and opened the sliding panel.
Before I could rouse myself to action―before I could move away into the dark recesses of the passage or even think of so doing, the secret door opened, bathing me in the light of the room and the cloaked and hooded figure stepped into the passage where I stood frozen and confronted me face to face.
For a moment we both stood motionless, gripped by the surprise of this sudden and unexpected encounter.
Then Darloona’s lover forced an unsteady laugh, and said, “Doubtless, friend, you are thinking the same thing, but―whatever are you doing here, Jandar?”
CHAPTER TEN
VALKAR UNMASKED!
It was not Prince Vaspian at all, but Valkar! By the light of the small lantern he carried I could see him quite clearly, the guarded expression of his face, and the way his right hand hovered rather near the hilt of his rapier.
It should not have come as such a surprise as it did. I should really have been prepared for this discovery. After all, had I not encountered Valkar, masked, peering into the Princess’ suite some days earlier? Had I not marked his face with my sword during that terrible duel in the dark, and had I not identified him as my unknown assailant at the court function, when I saw the fresh scar on his unmasked face?
However, I had by now convinced myself that the cloaked man I had seen holding Darloona in his arms was my patron, Prince Vaspian; and such is the power of self-conviction that it had not even entered my mind that her lover might be someone else. Now that I began to see things in heir true light, I realized that the Prince and Valkar were about the same height and build, and that they wore cloaks of identical design and hue, which was not surprising, as most warriors of the Chac Yuul wore cloaks of this design―I bad one, myself―and the hair of both was sleek and black.
Valkar saw the blank expression of surprise on my face, and the tension left his handsome features. He laughed and clapped me on the shoulder. “But we cannot converse here, where the guards beyond Darloona’s door may hear the muffed tones of conversation and become alarmed. Indeed, it is surprising that they did not become earlier alarmed at our recent sword duel―for now I believe that it was you, Jandar, who surprised me peering into the apartments of the Princess to see if she was alone, and who gave me this small scar on the face! Come, I know a place nearby where we can be alone and where no one is likely to overhear us.”
He led me to a secluded chamber which, from the accumulated dust and other tokens of neglect, was very seldom visited. There he lit a half-consumed candle in a silver holder, threw off his cloak, and turned to regard me with a half serious and half humorous gaze.
“I suspect, old friend, that you are here for much the same reason as I―to effect the escape of the Princess Darloona,” he said.
“I am. It was for that reason alone that I entered Shondakor and sought a place in the fighting forces of the Chac Yuul,” I admitted. He nodded.
“It is the same with me. But I do not recognize you as a defender of the cause of the rightful queen of Shondakor,” he mused. “Never do I recall having seen you at the court of the Princess, nor even as being among the warrior nobles who fled into the Grand Kumala with the Princess when the treacherous arts of Ool the Uncanny permitted the Black Legion to enter and seize the city. Why, then, this desperate mission? Who are you, Jandar?”
“I am not a Shondakorian, but a stranger from a far-off land,” I admitted. “I am the man who assisted the Princess to escape from the clutches of the Yathoon Horde when they took her prisoner in the jungle country; and, still later, when she was held captive by Prince Thuton of Zanadar, it was I, together with a friendly renegade Yathoon chieftain named Koja and a gallant old Swordmaster from Ganatol named Lukor, who rescued her from the Cloud City of the Sky Pirates, only to lose her to a patrol of Black Legion warriors. Since her present captivity by the Chac Yuul is in part my own fault, I resolved to gain a place in the Legion and see if I could not undo my failure to adequately protect her by yet once again effecting her freedom and returning her to her people. Thus I disguised my identity with a false history even as you, Valkar, are disguised with cosmetics! For I know that you are truly a Shondakorian, a man of the Ku Thad, and that the color of your skin and hair is false.”